Cinematic Releases: A Million Ways To Die In The West

Seth MacFarlane tries something new with his latest, A Million Ways To Die In The West.

"Give me back my daughter!!!"

After the hilarity of Ted, it was expected that Seth MacFarlane's string of success would continue with his latest comedic outing, A Million Ways To Die In The West.

Unfortunately for him, this latest movie lacks the creative ambition or comic fortitude of that obnoxious drug addled teddy bear and his human counterparts. Like most other comedies of late, this western spoof is another summer release that gave away all the laughs in the extremely promising two minute trailer. It's not that its a horrible film by any means, but it's a far cry from the humor that made Ted such a unique and uproarious ninety minutes at the theater.

MacFarlane has a flair for gross out humor, perverted sexual sensibilities and never hesitates to push the envelope as far as his writing goes. A Million Ways To Die In The West seems to capitalize on those three items immediately and cannot keep up with itself, making the laughs feel forced as the movie runs out of steam about forty five minutes in to this overlong, self absorbed comedy that just can't compete with MacFarlane's other (better) projects. The movie feels too familiar as we get penis joke after fart joke after vagina joke after sheep joke. Let's get one thing straight. I can handle off color, perverted humor. But this time around, it feels like I was beaten over the head time and time again with the same joke repeatedly. We get it man, you like splatter farts and sheep piss. But how many times can you use the same gag over again without losing your audience?

"Oh my god, Becky! Lookat her butt!!"

The casting in A Million Ways To Die In The West is spot on. We get top notch dramatic stars, Charlize Theron, Giovanni Ribisi, Amanda Seyfried and Liam Neeson, all competing against the far advanced teenage wit of MacFarlane. And, I'll admit, it works it times. At others, it just feels like this thing was thrown together by some people that said "Hey! Let's take some of that Ted money and make a throwback gunslinger satire with a bunch of shit jokes!". At the half way point, I was over it completely. There is just nothing compelling about this movie other than some cool cameos, a couple pop culture references, and seeing some super talented actors try to do comedy.

If you're a huge MacFarlane fan, I think you'll definitely walk away impressed by A Million Ways To Die In The West. When we were leaving the theater, we heard someone say "That was better than Ted!". No way. This is a just above average comedy that plays to a core audience and never stops cashing in on the same jokes for an extended run time of nearly two hours. Despite the excellent soundtrack, that's way too long for this type of comedic release.